Our long weekend was equal parts farm work, research and relaxation. We are hit with the bulk of our harvest and trying to find innovative ways to preserve it. The nice thing about canning, is that after the upfront work, the canning process takes anywhere from 40 minutes to 90 or more minutes. That leaves a little bit of down time to take a breath, read a book, cultivate new ideas and implement wild hairs....like my sudden desire to re-arrange the family room!
We have been fortunate in our tomato harvest this year and so far harvested 80 lbs of tomatoes which have been eaten fresh and put in farm bags, but mostly gone into 17 quarts of roasted tomatoes in our pantry. I think that we will have one more round of paste tomatoes to can, and then onto making green tomato relish! This is a favorite of ours and this year we are going to crock ferment it! Excitingly enough B and I will be speaking about crock fermenting at an event on September 12th, so this crock may just find its way into our demonstration.
We have tried to grow leeks a few times over the years, with varying success. This year was a bumper year for them. So in our search for ways to preserve them B pulled out Julia's Vichyssoise recipe and we found it a perfect match for pressure canning. We pulled a few potatoes out, a very small portion of another crop doing very well, and put up 7 quarts of lovely soup. In addition to what we canned, we had a large pot left over ready for an alfresco supper last night.
We also got our seventh farm bag of the season out yesterday! As each year goes by we get a little bit better at planning and implementing our farm bags. We have averaged five a season up until this year. We may get one final bag out, but the plants are all slowing down and showing signs of finishing. This weeks bags included Kale, Potatoes, Garlic, Cherry Tomatoes, Green Beans, a Bell Pepper, Eggplant, and leeks.
Even with warm days still hanging on, we are winding toward fall. I love this season, it is comprised of lots of enjoying the outside time to its fullest, as well as an inner pulling toward preparing the nest.
Remember when I mentioned that we had a blogger for the Boston Store at our Chili Cook-off? Well, we are almost famous in this little write up!
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